A man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for raping an 11-year-old girl whom he deemed “consenting”. The case had led to a law.
SourceAFP
© Philippe Turpin / MAXPPP / BENELUXPIX/MAXPPP
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L’case had sparked a heated debate on the non-consent of minors. A 33-year-old man was sentenced Friday, November 4 in Pontoise to eight years in prison for having, in 2017 in Val-d’Oise, raped an 11-year-old girl whom he had then deemed “consenting”. “The court considers that the sexual acts were committed by moral constraint and by surprise,” said the president of the criminal court, made up of five professional judges, without a popular jury.
The verdict was pronounced in public. But the three days of hearing were held away from the ears of the press, because of the total camera. The victim, at “11 years and 10 months did not have sufficient maturity or discernment to consent to sexual intercourse”, argued the president of the court, after a deliberation of more than three hours.
Serinte Sangare “abused the vulnerability” of the victim “to achieve the immediate satisfaction of (his) desires and (his) sexual arousal” and could not ignore the age of the child. Despite her physical appearance, “her real age is very quickly noticeable when you talk to her,” said the magistrate.
READ ALSOSexual intercourse at 11 years old: the thorny question of the consent of the child
An “emblematic” case
Convicted of rape of a minor, Serinte Sangare was sentenced to eight years in prison with a warrant, a decision slightly below the requisitions. He is also prohibited from working with children for ten years. Appearing free, the one who had not carried out pre-trial detention remained without reaction during the verdict. He was then to be imprisoned.
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Opposite the room, the victim remained stoic and discreet, surrounded by his parents and his psychologist. This “emblematic” case, according to child protection associations, had resulted in the law of April 2021 setting a threshold of non-consent at 15 years. However, the accused was tried under the old law, the more severe criminal law not being retroactive.
On April 24, 2017, the schoolgirl is sitting in a park near her home, in Montmagny (Val-d’Oise). She is chatting with a 28-year-old man, who has already approached her two weeks earlier. Interim by profession, father of a nine-year-old child, the latter invites him to follow her to his building. In a stairwell, at the request of the man, she performs oral sex on him. Then in her apartment, a relationship with vaginal penetration takes place, without violence. Once out, she calls her mother and tells her that she was raped. The initial lawsuit, for “sexual abuse”, had aroused the ire of feminist and child protection associations. An investigation had finally been opened.